Lifetime’s American Music Story series continues with the three-disc set of Ike & amp; The Tina Turner Story: 1960-1975. This new collection showcases the music left over from the fall of the supernova that was the career of Ike and Tina Turner. Bypassing most of the title restrictions, Lifetime can contract the major hits of the greats.
The story of Ike and Tina’s life together is a story of missed opportunities, abuse and rebirth, so I focus on how they meet and the music in their hands. For the details of their life together and how bad it got, see the film What Got Love or read I, Tina by Tina.
Ike was R&B; the pioneer who helped give birth to Rock ‘N’ Roll with the 1951 hit “Rocket 88” by his band The Kings Of Rhythm. At the time of its release, the song was credited to Ike’s sax man and vocalist on the track, Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats. With the success of the song, Jackie and “his” cats ditched Ike and signed with Chess Records in Chicago, leaving Ike bandless and bitter.
Meanwhile, in Nutbush, Tennessee, a young Anna Mae Bullock was rocking a car and listening to carols on the radio. Little did he know that in a few years he would be singing and shouting his brand of bluesy rock and expanding R&B; sound into something new, or his life turned upside down, inside, and reaching rock bottom before finding the success he truly deserved in the music world.
One night in 1957, Anna Mae was hooking up with Ike and his reformed Kings of Rhythm at an East St. Louis nightclub when she was called on stage during intermission. Ike noticed the clamor of the young Blues and a few days later mother’s day home asking if young Anna Mae was traveling with the band could Momms agreed and at the next gig she was introduced as Little Ann. The world was reeling and Ike kept the band active, gigging and putting out records on the road. Yet not until 1960 did Ike hit with something that would stick and put him in the spotlight.
“Stupid In Love” put Little Ann on the front burner and sent shockwaves through the microphones and music world. To protect himself from Little Ann abandoning him “like the others did,” Ike made sure that one Ike & Tina Turner, to replace if necessary. Although at the time they were not married to Anna Mae Bullock, Tina Turner was now carrying baby Ike.
This is the same song that opens the world and evokes the greatest 60s tone. With Ike’s band pounding solid beats filled with dense bass lines, dropping drums, rollickin’ piano, and bluesy guitar licks bent to hell, the hits are comin’. But it’s Tina’s stony-backed growl that sets Ikettes’ sound apart.
More hits follow in the form of Ike’s formulaic sound, which in these early days of broken soul can best be described as revamped and Tina-fied New Orleans Boogie. “I idolize you,” “Conna need,” “Foolish boy,” “Tra La La La,” and “I’m blue (Gong-Gong Song)” by the Ikettes are the best examples of this. the sound Sometimes it’s easy to see the influence of Brother Ray Charles and Godfather James Brown. In “Gonna Work Out” guitar hero Mickey Baker Mickey and Sylvia (“Love Is Strange”) reputation bad vocals They don’t do Ike.
“You Should’ve Treated Me Right” and “Good Good Lovin'” are good examples of Ike reaching into the past for inspiration. “You should’ve treated me right,” shouts Ray and the Raylettes, while “Love” has Ike pumpin’ 88s like Huey “Piano” Smith and recreated a hit from the early 50s. Someone’s disc is going around with some hints of what’s to come. The story of “Stagger Lee And Billy,” “Two Is A Couple,” and “I’m Gonna Take It All (Right By My Man)” are signs of the future and push others in a new direction.
The disc ends with a live version of one of the couple’s venerable songs “River Deep, Mountain High” written and produced by Phil Spector. It’s a live version because it’s trying to make life time harder for reasons of interest. The song is key to the Ike and Tina story because it made Ike mad that he didn’t have anything to do with his recording while Tina became the obvious main attraction of Ike & Tina Revue and stepping back from her abusive ways.
Disc Two is where it’s really at; Late ’69. Opening with a solid blues number “Hunter” that has Ike bending the strings in every way, leaving his smokin’ solos behind. Track two is a moving cover of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Longing You” and Tina lays it down like a woman who knows the hurt of the place well.
“Bold Soul Sister” is solid funk that mixes the soul of James Brown with the grooves of the Mets and Tina claims she’s “B.S.S.” and a woman who will not have any crap! The ball of liberty is driven by his person. The four glide through the track with ease and show that they can make any song their own, taking over the two Beatles tribute Blues “Come Together”.
The rehearsal continued as Tina listened to the raphim music of the day. Versions of the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” that was. in the actual years of his life, he was becoming something new and his own. “Super Maria” opens slowly and then launches into a fiery rock swamp with a spicy anthem, while Stax’s “Workin’ Together” and “Get Back” sound like they could have been part of Elvis’ 1970s Vegas repertoire.
In Heah”, “Sexy Ida (Part 1)”, “Sweet Rhode Island Red”, and ” The End of the Nutbush State” are tunes that represent the last Easter of Ike and Tina’s union. The guitars get heavier and more distorted, the bass drops with funk, and the drums keep a steady beat as the horns jump in and out. Rounding out the band are keyboards and guitar-chords bent too damn much, creating spacey sounds that are close to the stratosphere. The guitar lends a hand for “Sexy Ida” and “NutbushCity” is Marc Bolan from T. KING.
Disc three is a live recording from 1969 with Ike & Tina Revue, where she is in full control and driving audiences wild with a high voltage electric stage presence. The album “In Persona” was never released on CD before making this a real life time exclusive. The disc drips with the feeling of a live show as it should be when a rock band mixes rock songs. /a> the solid soul of the casters. We’re going to hear the Ikettes on “Everyday People” and “It’s Time.” Tina hits you with Spencer Davis’ “Gimme Some Lovin'” and Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music.” Not to mention his killer renditions of “Funky Street”, “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Respect”.
The best way to close one hell of a boxed set and as a bonus is a 24-page booklet filled with many interesting pictures and again It was written by the very talented Colin Escott. There is a great photo of Ike looking at Tina on stage and giving her the evil eye. It is great, and gathers such a warm report. Take this one, just yours; will be movin’ and groovin’ from start to finish.
Written by Fantasma el Rey
